Friday, July 5, 2013 - Runaround Day

Before leaving Tennessee, I had sent in all the information to get new passports for the horses, and last week, I got a voicemail that said they were ready, so I gave them a General Delivery address at the South Branch post office, hoping that they would arrive before we left. I headed out about 11:00, hoping to get there before lunch, only to find that they didn't open until noon! Didn't really want to sit around for half an hour, not knowing whether the mail had actually arrived or not, so I headed down the road until I stopped at a little general store. I asked the nice folks there where there was a feed store, and they weren't too sure, but they send me up a back road to a sawmill to a woman named Lisa who had a farm and horses who they felt would know. I went into Lisa's office and explained myself, and she made a phone call for me to the local feed store, but didn't have anything I needed except plain oats, so we determined I would have to go all the way down to West Branch to the Tractor Supply to get what we wanted. Forty-five minutes later, I first found an auto parts store for a replacement side-marker for the trailer (which turned out to be the wrong one anyway), made a few phone calls (and learned my mail had NOT yet arrived), and some emails, before heading out to Tractor Supply, where I got everything I needed except Enrich 32 (though I arranged for a Purina dealer near our next camp to get one for us), and then Walmart, before heading back to camp. I missed a turn somewhere and ended up eight miles out of the way, had to backtrack, so by the time I got back to camp it was nearly 4:00, too late to consider a short ride today, which had been our original plan. Settled down for our usual evening routine.